The Gilmours and Cunninghams originally came from Paisley region of Scotland. The Cunninghams would seemed to have relocated to Northern Ireland as part of the Ulster Plantation. The Gilmours moved late in the eighteenth century and settled in Londonderry. They lived and worked in the parish of Templemore; which covers the greater part of the city and includes the cathedral which was also the parish church. The Cunninghams lived in the parish of Burt in the County of Donegal which is a few miles outside Londonderry. There were two notable periods in history when Scots in particular, settled in great numbers in - immediately after the English conquest in the period 1608-1611 and as part of the Cromwellian Commonwealth settlements; of that county from 1649-1652. There is a stained glass window in the Cathedral in Glasgow commemorating the exploits of an Alexander Cunningham. Whether he bears any relationship to our family is not known.
Experts will readily acknowledge that the odds of finding a particular family, let alone an individual in Ireland, are small. This is particularly so for the years before 1830 and is due in main to the loss of records although the people sharing a few common family names and the propensity to use even fewer given names, does not assist the researcher! Records for Burt peter out before 1820 and Templemore parish records are lost for the period around the turn of the century. All records we have located came leads in David Gilmour's Bible.
Fortunately our Gilmours retained links with Paisley. Anne's uncle, Robert Gilmour never left Scotland and married Graham Rodger - Scottish records are much more accessible! The Gilmours were cloth merchants who started off quite humbly in Paisley as weavers.